At the beginning of each school year, a special
package containing tiny caterpillars arrivedfrom the
University of Kansas. Students also collected
caterpillars from local milkweed plants in their yards and along roadways.
Kids become scientists in this project, studying caterpillars, observing them, and
measuring various changes. When metamorphosis was complete, students released
the adult Monarchs in our school yard to send them on their journey to Mexico -
the amazing story of migration. This page shows how students learned and played with the caterpillars and the adult
Monarchs. Part Two of this project is the Symbolic Migration, explained
below.

As students raised Monarchs in the classroom, they also participated in
the annual Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Migration. We shared this
project with a few thousand students across the United States and
Canada. Thousands of paper butterflies migrate to Mexico
for the winter. Paper butterflies from classrooms arrive in Mexico about the same time as the real migrating Monarchs.

Mexican students watch over the paper butterflies during the
winter months. In March, the paper butterflies are sent back to
the US and Canada just as the real Monarchs begin returning from the
mountains near Angangueo in Mexico. Students know that the Monarchs
that go to Mexico are not the same ones that return. So when
we receive our returning group of butterflies, we will find that they
are not the ones we sent. They will be butterflies made by other
students, perhaps with messages written in Spanish for us to
translate!